I bought Print Artist last night and just played with it for hours and hours. It's a cheap little program ($10), but it does a lot of the same things that Photoshop does.
I was cruising through the art files, looking for anything that looked like a "peep" and saw this funny little duck and fell in love with it's cute little face. It cheered me up immediately and knew that was my character to build my design around. I wasn't even sure if I could crop Mickey Ears correctly, but it ended up working out.
I just hope my friends love it as much as you do -- it will be a surprise shirt in their travel goodie bags we're working on. Thanks so much for your support -- it gives me encouragement to keep designing!